Arts & Culture - Spring / Summer

Winnipeg is known as “the cultural cradle of Canada,” so no matter what time of year you visit we guarantee your artistic appetite will be
well fed.

For starters, nothing seems to ring in the warm air like the
new season at Rainbow Stage,
Winnipeg’s historic, visually stunning open-air theatre in Kildonan Park. This year’s line-up of musicals is looking
particularly noteworthy, with the Man in Black being honoured from June 23-July
15 with Cash: Ring of Fire, while
from August 11-August 31 the whole family will laugh and sing along with
everyone’s favourite ogre at Shrek: The Musical.

During the summer, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) takes their sweet sounds out of the Centennial
Concert Hall to open-air venues likeAssiniboine Park’s Lyric Theatre and The Forks’
Scotiabank Stage. On Canada Day in particular the outdoor Scotiabank Stage always showcases an
incredibly diverse concert, the culmination of which often sees the WSO playing
along with noteworthy local bands (past symphonic collaborations have included
hip-hop act The Lytics, and alternative band Royal Canoe).

For more sweet sounds in the great outdoors the Lyric Theatre at Assiniboine Park
provides an ideal setting for the whole family (or a special date) to set up a picnic
blanket from which to sit and watch the likes of Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet (RWB), the aforementioned WSO and great touring acts. They also
play movies throughout summer in an experience that is always magical.

Now this being Winnipeg – a city with arguably more live
music per capita than any other Canadian city – there will always be other
forms of live music to be had at smaller venues across the city. Downtown a
local favourite is the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, whose
tiny honky-tonk room on Main Street has seen some of the best acts in North
America, while The West End Cultural Centre has always been a vocal supporter of the arts.
Newer fun places include The Good Will Social Club, which seriously features live music (or some kind
of happening) every night. (For a complete listing of shows in the city check
out this Live Music Calendar from our friends at Manitoba Music.)

Music festival fans are also in their element in Winnipeg
during summer. The big daddy event of them all is the Winnipeg Folk Festival(July 7-10) an annual event held at Bird’s Hill Park filled with culture, song, dance, and artisans (the Folk Fest peeps
also put on monthly concerts around the city #hearallyear). This year’s FF
headliners include Ryan Adams, Milky Chance, and Basia Bulat. The other big
guitar-centric festival is the Interstellar Rodeo, a now-annual thee-day festival at The Forks (August 12-14) where you
can go rock out to big names like Wilco, Serena Ryder, and more. Finally, on
the outdoor concert front there is theTD International Jazz Fest (June 16-26), which sees multiple lively free
shows at The Cubestage in The Exchange District, along with primetime shows at venues
throughout the city.

For Winnipeg theatregoers the marquee summer event is the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, which
pretty much turns the whole Exchange District into one massive performance
piece from July 13/-24. More than 180 companies from across Canada and around
the globe will be bringing their plays to venues around the theatre district,
while outside, centred around Old Market
Square, you can catch live music, street performers and other out-there
forms of entertainment everyday from noon to midnight.

A uniquely Winnipeg theatre experience is Shakespeare in the Ruins, which sees
the St. Norbert Ruins – a completely
outdoor venue – serve as the stage. This summer from June 1 to June 25 they’ll
be performing Richard III.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery is always a wise choice in the summertime, especially when your
visit culminates with a glass of wine and a stroll through their rooftop patio
that overlooks downtown. One special exhibit they have this summer is Chagall (May 28-August 28, 2016), which contains 42 lithograph prints from Russian-born
Marc Chagall.

An incredible one-of-a-kind festival that needs to be on
your Winnipeg summer agenda is Manito Ahbee (May 18-22), which celebrates indigenous heritage and culture with
events that educate, unify, and above all, inspire. It all begins with the
lighting of the sacred fire at the Oodena Circleat The Forks (May 18), a
ceremony guided by elders where offerings of tobacco are made accompanied with
music and dance. The other big public event at Manito Ahbee is the International Pow Wow (May 21-22) at
the RBC Convention Centre, where over 800 dancers will compete in numerous categories
in what is Canada’s largest (and North America’s second largest) Pow Wow. The
drumming and singing, from North America’s best Indigenous drum groups, is
incredibly powerful and surely something you will not forget.

Another authentic Indigenous event in Winnipeg is Aboriginal Day Live(June 25), an
annual celebration put on by the Aboriginal
Peoples Television Network at The
Forks. This year marks the 10-year anniversary where live bands, food
vendors, a Pow Wow, artisans, and fireworks showcase Canada’s Indigenous
communities.